Crise de Main-d’œuvre agricole et Opportunités d’Affaires dans l’Agriculture haïtienne, Étude du Cas de la Commune de la Vallée de Jacmel

Abstract

The weakness of the agricultural technology in the third-world countries explains the high level of labor intensity in agricultural production activities. In some countries such as Haiti, constraints of different kinds related to climate, nature, environment, socio-economy, institution, current situation and structure have had through time a negative impact on agricultural labor availability through migration of agricultural workers towards the cities or towards other countries or through their involvement within the country in full-time non-agricultural activities. Today, agricultural labor scarcity in Haiti makes the survival of the agricultural sector itself a doubtful issue if no alternative strategy is considered. This situation of critical crisis in agricultural workers availability has dramatically worsened with the earthquake of 2010. Agricultural labor available in the municipality of La Vallée de Jacmel has a 23.86% decrease from 2009 to 2021. This situation gives incentives for institutional innovations creation in terms of building an enterprise offering cultivation services by order in this municipality. A feasibility study is made for this pilot-project in this research work, considering aspects of marketing, production, human resources and finance. To ensure durability and long-term expansion of the project throughout the country, the financial aspect takes into account the benefits of the enterprise not only for itself but also for the agricultural producers who will demand the services and for the agricultural workers providing the services in the enterprise. The results show that the enterprise’s return on investment in the first year will be 53.12%. Per-hectare prices to be charged by the enterprise for the cultivation operations (plowing, harrowing, seedling, weeding and harvesting) will be at least three (3) times less than the current per-hectare costs of these operations for the producers. Hourly wage for the agricultural workers in the enterprise will increase by 87.5%, as compared to current hourly wage which is fifty (50) gourdes in the agricultural production farms.

Keywords

• migration
• crisis
• labor availability
• pilot-project
• feasibility study